See Me - 19. Chapter 19: Double Negative

Emry sat in the passenger seat of Sailor's blue 2004 Honda Civic VP while Jasper and Asia took the back seat. He stared out the window as they came closer to the projects, Dani had been furious over the phone, but at least he seemed to buy the idea that someone in a neighboring trailer might of snatched it, he hoped that would keep his dad safe if the two ever came face to face.

"Okay...so what exactly are we doing here? This is likely where he came." Jasper said.

"I have to tend to some other business." Emry opened the door once Sailor parked. "Keep the engine running." He then headed off and over to the steps and began to climb them, seeing Lana waiting at the top.

Her eyes narrowed on Emry. "I hope you are happy...because making him happy...after what he did...I hated it."

"Yeah, well...getting happy with Dolph by using my medication because you knew he would never do it otherwise, I'm sure he wouldn't of been too happy with that. And in chain reaction, I wasn't too happy about what it caused me."

"Yeah, well I am sorry about that, you don't know how much, I was stupid and never thought something like that would ever happen. I made a mistake." She shook her head and pulled the flash drive out of her pocket. "Here...take it."

Emry grabbed the flash drive from her. "SHSMMS?"

"Seeing him smile made me sick. He was like a fucking dog who hadn't had it in forever...and then when he went boom, he had this big happy smile on his face...and I wanted to be anywhere but there." She walked around him and stopped at the top step.

Emry looked down and his eyes closed as he imagined it within his mind and he almost shuddered at the thought, he couldn't see Chase smiling, but he could hear how happy the man was as he used him.

"And Emry? Don't call me again. Round Rock is over...I am never coming back and you likely will never see me again. I met a friend in that rehab center...and I've decided to leave with her to move into her place in Georgia, maybe help keep her sober and clean."

He turned around and then he looked at Lana, not sure what to say, he wanted to cry, he regretted what he made her do, and now she wanted to leave forever. Maybe it was for the best? Maybe they both needed to find their own ways out. "Good luck." It was the only thing he could think of.

Lana didn't say another word as she headed down the steps to get into her rental and take off, she would be on her way back to Dallas to see their mother through the rest of her recovery before she went to Georgia, but this would be the last time she ever saw Round Rock, she had already made that decision.

Emry headed over to Jesse's door and knocked on it and he waited until Jesse opened the door. "Hey." He walked inside and he turned around. "Okay...I got what we need to set things in motion."

"Let me see it." Jesse took the offered flash drive and walked to his room with Emry and shut the door. He sat down and plugged in the flash drive and opened it up, putting his head phones on.

He played the MP3 file and sure enough, it was Lana and Athen having sex, though Athen was making most of the noise, which didn't hurt. After a few moments, he exited the player and tugged the flash drive out, setting his head phones aside. "We got what we need."

"Okay, good." Emry nodded, good for the plan, but nothing else. "We're going to have to talk about this in the car, it's really a long story but...traveling while we plan is kind of necessary."

Dani sat in Asia's room, seeing the blue car and he knew it looked familiar, it was the same kind of car that Sailor owned, and the New Jersey plates was a dead giveaway that they possibly could of followed him. He sure wasn't happy about that. His eyes narrowed as he watched Emry and Jesse come out of the apartment and head down the steps.

Emry jumped back into the passenger seat and Jasper shifted into the middle to make room for Jesse to climb in and once the door shut, that was when Sailor backed out and took off, leaving the projects behind.

"Okay, so we got everything we need as far as the recording." Jesse said, figuring he could speak freely.

"Good, and after you mix it...give it to me. I want to be the one to expose them." She grinned.

"Naturally." Emry looked back at Asia. "Question is...how are we going to get his blood?"

Asia looked up. "Well, once he's accused of possibly being the father, maybe he'll do it willfully just to prove it, of course we risk him not cooperating if they actually never have slept together and he proclaims that and sticks to it and won't give more than his word."

"That would be when you accuse him of being scared that it could be his." Jasper chimed in, having no idea what they were talking about, but he was sort of picking up on it.

"True.." Jesse shook his head. "Even still, how are you going to make sure Merit's blood doesn't end up in either vial and that Athen's blood goes into both and they get labeled with one being Merit's?"

"We get a nurse to take a sample of Athen's blood prematurely, stick a Merit tag on it and then once the time has come, switch Merit's real vial with that vial." Emry shrugged.

"How do you get his blood before the test?" Jesse asked

"I'll beat him up, pissed for what he did to Emry and...then Miki can convince him to go to the ER." Asia said.

"And I already know a nurse that might do me the favor. He can say that it's for collection so that if they ever need blood donations for a certain blood type, they know donors who they can call. Hopefully he will go for it, seems like a good deed, if not...Miki will have to push at him a little."

Jesse nodded. "Then he puts a Merit label on it, holds onto the vial, and simply pulls the switch when the blood test happens to prove who the father is, and Merit will show up a negative because...as far as we know..."

"Athen hasn't used the blow up bitch." Asia grinned.

"Okay, but we really shouldn't recruit the nurse until closer to time, and we should be careful about when the recording is revealed, everything has to be timed just right." Jesse reached up and tapped Emry's shoulder. "You need to get closer to that nurse, if he was friendly towards you or whatever, get closer to him, then throw little hints out there, nudge at him, be subtle, find out if you could get him to do it."

Jasper looked up and his eyes shifted between the three. "This is like a soap opera plot..."

Asia grinned at the comment. "It is...but I want to destroy that bitch. She wants to use that baby to hold onto Merit and I want to snatch him away, and if he has no obligations, he will drop her like it's hot!" She clapped.

"And I want to protect him from the awful mistake he made, save his life." Emry nodded and looked out the window.

"I just help because I'm the cool DJ guy that everyone loves." Jesse grinned and looked around. "And I'm the one that do these manipulations."

"Manipulations? Okay wait...so she didn't have sex with this Athen guy, does that mean someone recorded her having sex with the other guy? Merit, I assume?" Jasper asked.

Emry shook his head. "No, Asia recorded her having sex with Kane. I got a theory that maybe she frantically went to him after she caught me and Merit making out and it probably fed his ego and he probably ate it like a pig."

"Of course it did...because that is Kane." Asia shook her head. "Stupid bitch, he is." She looked up. "By the way, once you make the offer to this nurse, tell him I can pay him five thousand dollars. Not much of a loss since I just made sixty thousand."

Jasper went quiet, did any of them think that this plan could end up in a double negative? Hell he wondered what chaos this plan would cause to begin with, but what would that cause? He wanted to be there and see it, so that is why he would keep his mouth shut.

"What?!" Jesse looked over at Asia. "How did you make that kind of money?"

Emry looked over at Asia in slight shock, wondering the same thing.

"Well, turns out that Liam murdered Mia. I found out because I found the letter. It was a break up letter. Mia and Liam were apparently secret lovers and she didn't want to do it anymore, didn't want to lie and hide from Merit, she was ending it. Crime of passion? Of course, most of them are."

Emry's eyes widened and he turned around, almost not being able to believe that Liam would do such a thing, even if any of that were true, would he take a break up that badly?

"They arrested him and it was a kind of well maneuvered business deal with reward money for the evidence. Then I made a deal with Detective Morrell this morning for five thousand dollars to nudge him in the right direction to finding Chase, after he was caught, he paid me that money, out of his own pocket. Desperate cop." She started laughing.

Jesse sat back. "Well, you did yourself good."

"You should of been there when I went to see my Aunt Jackie, I'll never forget it!" She smiled.

And soon silence took over as Sailor randomly drove around town, turning here and there, stopping and starting, driving down the same street for a while, just randomly going as they would ride and discuss, waiting to be directed on where to go or where to stop, anything of that nature.

Investigator Morrell pulled up and parked in the middle of the desolate road where crime scene tape had already been put up and wrapped around posts that had been stuck into the ground. He got out and headed over, pulling out his badge and flashing it to an officer as he ducked down and slipped under the tape and he looked over at Detective Holland, a newly hired to the force, a newbie in his eyes and a rival, since he had been lead and lone detective until now.

"What do we got?" He asked.

Detective Holland was well aware of what Trace thought of her, and it was actually amusing, it only made her want to work harder, appear more professional, and seem more superior and well equipped in her work. She turned towards him. "Single white male, I would feel safe to assume seventeen to eighteen years of age, single gun shot to the forehead. Who ever did this, I would say forced him into this field, likely out of fear and has damn good aim."

Trace walked past her and looked at the body laying in the edge of the field. "Well, being you are so new here...you sure can't identify the victim can you?"

Natalya turned around, her gaze following him. "You got me there, but I'll quickly learn."

"This is Dolphen Reinhardt." He turned towards her. "A student at Cedar Ridge High School...and a Junior. That would likely make him seventeen."

Natalya narrowed her eyes. "Unless he failed the grade." She walked over and looked down at the body. "Any known enemies?"

"None that I am aware, that is what is going to make this case such a bitch." Trace said. "He lives in those projects..." His phone then began to ring and he grabbed it. "It's the boss." He looked up. "Looks like you're going to have the messy dealings with the family, but hey...you can get some answers if they aren't too bereaved." He walked off to distance himself as he answered the call.

"Hi, Detective Morrell, I am calling back from the forensics lab. The blood splotches on the note do match that of Mia Forte. However...the only finger prints found on the note were Mia's...Michelle's and Asia's..."

Trace looked down. "He never got the note..." He mumbled and then looked up. "Thank you, that is all I'll be needing for now, keep the note in evidence." He hung up and walked back over to Detective Holland. "Hey, do you got things here covered?"

Natalya grinned. "I could cover this town, hope the boss doesn't decide you're not needed."

"Right." He shook his head and walked off and ducked under the yellow tape and headed off towards his car, knowing he needed to get to Liam. One more job had to be done and the kid had a chance at freedom, it was probably something he should of done at the very beginning.

"Hey...can someone give me directions to the uh..projects?" Natalya walked around. "I have to let this kids parents know what is going on?" She looked over as one of cops grabbed a note pad and came over to assist her.

Asia leaned forward and slightly to the side to look up ahead. "Oh hell..." She wondered if they actually did manage to get Chase.

Sailor pulled up and then slowed down once he got closer to the crime scene tape. Emry opened the passenger side door and then and then Jesse reached over, letting the passenger seat down and he climbed out, along with Jasper and Asia and they headed closer to the scene.

"Yo! Miss Inspector Gadget!" Asia grinned. "Who bit the bullet?!" She walked right up to the tape, as if she would dare cross it.

Natalya turned around and she looked over at the approaching teens. "You all need to vacate the area now, this is a crime scene." She said in a slightly raised, stern, yet controlled tone.

It was at that point that Emry walked up and saw them lift Dolph up onto a stretcher, blood running down the side of his forehead, then one of the men pulled the zipper up on the body bag. His eyes widened and he ran forward. "Dolph!" A scream escaped as a loud cry burst out of him.

Jasper quickly wrapped his arms around Emry's waist and he pulled him back, holding him from running through the crime scene.

"Let me go!" Emry cried as he felt himself jerk back into Jasper, both stumbled but Jasper managed to keep his balance. A loud cry escaped and he tried to pull away, his arms swinging, one after the other, as if that would grant him freedom.

Though the more Emry fought, the weaker he felt, and yet he didn't care, he could sense it coming on and all he wanted to do was get there, watching them put Dolph into the ambulance. His arms grew weaker and then he began to gasp.

Sailor got out of the car at this point and he looked around and his eyebrows lifted.

"I..." Jesse shook his head.

Asia walked over and she grabbed Jesse by the sleeve of his shirt and she yanked him close and started to mumble through gritted teeth. "He was with Dani this morning...they were going after Chase, it was the plan, we both know that...he was with Dani."

Jesse looked up at Asia. "You think?"

Asia rolled her eyes. "Dani pushed it...and he didn't even hesitate a thought, if he could kill Chase without a thought, why not? Get rid of loose ends? For all we know, they'll find Tyler dead, if they haven't already." She whispered.

Emry continued to gasp and he jerked away from Jasper only to spin around and he collapsed to the ground and rather than going cataleptic, he lost consciousness as his body stiffened and began shaking and then he began to convulse and his arms and legs started jerking.

"Uh oh...I think...oh no!" Jasper covered his mouth.

Asia and Jesse turned around and her eyes widened. "Do I look like a nurse?" She pointed at Jasper. "Don't look at me!"

Sailor shook his head and dived to the ground and he turned Emry onto his side and pulled his upper body onto his lap and lightly held onto him, giving him plenty of freedom and room, while at the same time, trying to comfort him, even if he wasn't aware of it at the time.

It went on for a moment longer until his body tightened and tensed one last time and then total relaxation and muscle weakness, seizure to cataplexy and right immediately into sleep phase. Sailor looked down at him and sighed with relief when his body seemed to calm down. "It stopped..."

"He might not wake up right away...he's also narcoleptic, the two operate together most of the time, at least when the epilepsy starts, the narcolepsy often acts on it's own...and I think it's more common with him." Jesse said.

Liam sat in the chair while the man finished attaching the wires to him and his eyes shifted to Trace and he grinned. "If I laugh at you right at the end, will that be enough for you to say I failed just so you didn't make a mistake? I'm sure laughter will make those lines go off like crazy."

"That part won't be counted, so have fun using your emotions to control the lines." Trace sighed and turned around. "To be honest, I hope you do pass, you just don't strike me as the type to do something like this." He looked at Liam. "But then you don't strike me as the type to hang out and mimic a guy like Kane either, you seem like a gentle soul."

"Well, you have to do what you have to do to fit in, though...murder isn't as far as I would go." He looked down. "Truth be told, if I knew she was that unhappy with us keeping it a secret, I could of let her go, I would of...and in the long run, it would of been better off."

"Because you found out you were gay?"

Liam shrugged. "It's the strangest thing....I never had a feeling." He looked up. "Not until Emry...and I wonder if I was like that all along or if I was changed, I know that's a stupid thought, but it has to be there."

"More like...maybe you weren't aware and then...maybe you realized." Trace shrugged and headed out of the room and shut the door, walking around to look through the glass.

The tester sat down in the chair near the machine and he started it and took a deep breath. "Is your name Liam?"

"Yes." He answered quite simply.

"Do you attend Cedar Ridge High School?"

"Yes I do." His eyes shifted down momentarily, not even wanting to do this test, it was boring him to tears, but if it cleared his name, he would go through it.

"Did you secretly date Mia Forte?"

Liam looked up. "I did."

The man paused as the line slightly went up.

"We kept it secret, so anyone knowing...I guess still makes me jumpy, plus shes gone..." Liam looked down.

"Did she ever indicate to you the want to break up?"

"No." Liam responded.

"Did you ever speak to Asia at the party?" The man asked.

"Yes." Liam said, remembering that she bought some of the drugs off of them.

"Did you ever see her firearm?"

"No I didn't." He took a deep breath, feeling restless.

"Did you ever speak to Mia that night?"

"No." Liam said, they couldn't have, if they did, Kane would have seen them together.

"And were you with Kane the entire night?" The man asked.

"Yes, we stayed together the whole night." Liam slightly nodded.

The man nodded for Trace to come back in as he stood up and began to remove the wires from where they were attached to Liam.

"So...how did it go?" Trace asked as he strolled back into the room.

"A slight lift at the first mention of Mia...but I can say that it could be a normal reaction, given the situation, other than that, I would say a passing result, truthful through and through."

Trace slowly nodded and he waved for Liam to follow him and the two headed out and he stopped in the hallway. "I'm going to let you go, being that you never touched the note and...seems like you had no idea she wanted to call it off, you were with Kane all night, I see no reason to hold you."

Liam crossed his arms. "I bet that disappoints you, probably thought you nailed the case shut. My advice? Keep checking everyone Asia talked to, it was her gun." He started off and then paused. "What did you think when Emry was a suspect?"

Trace stared at Liam. "Honestly? I was not in any hurry to throw him in the slammer. I was following taught procedure, straight evidence was there, evidence that connected him...but, I just...knew he didn't do it. Other cops did the grilling, I questioned initially but I really did not know what to do with it."

"So, you never had him put in a cell?" Liam asked.

"We didn't keep him over night. We called his doctor and got her professional opinion and it was enough for me to let him go, especially when it was enough reason for the family to believe he didn't do it."

"Would you have?" He asked.

Trace looked up. "Like you...he would have gotten a private cell." A slight grin appeared. "Though I might of checked on him a little more frequently."

Liam nodded. "There was one guy at the party, bought drugs from us...and he kind of advised us to put the pills in bags and not sale them from the bottles. And then...it's odd that the bottles ended up there."

"Know who the guy was?" Trace asked.

"Blonde hair, kinda shaggy, kinda neat, probably uses lots of conditioner." He shrugged. "Black hoodie, beanie cap...young.." Liam turned around and then he headed off to leave the police station, ready to see freedom and ready to go home.

Trace stood there in thought. "Young blonde kid...cared too much about the bottles." He grinned. "And that same kid borrowed Asia's gun and has the lamest excuse, that's a straight and narrow." He then headed down the hall only to stop.

"Morrell!" An older man called out.

He turned around and headed to the door. "Boss?"

"Get in here." The older man stated. "Sit down!"

Trace frowned, he knew he was in trouble. He walked in and shut the door, heading over to sit in one of the chairs across the desk.

"I'm suspending you. First you have made no progress on the case and the progress you do make turns out to be dead wrong and puts an innocent person in jail." The man said.

"Okay...but hold on, I have a really good lead now, a strong lead, I know where to go from here, I found the weak spot and the right person." Trace sighed. "Please don't give this case to Natalya, she already has her own murder to solve. It will take longer and our reputation will go down."

The man stared at Trace. "Fine...but if this lead fails, you are out, suspension, I mean it."

"I promise, this is turning into something." Trace stood up and he quickly retreated from the office and headed out to chase down an old lead that now became more clear.

Natalya walked up to the door and gave a few light knocks. This was new to her, the very first time she had to deliver the big news and she wasn't very thrilled on having to do it, in fact, despite how in control she wanted to appear, she was nervous as hell and anxious as could be, thankfully none of the others from the station were here to see this.

An older woman opened the door and her eyebrows lifted. "Yeah?" She asked, her tone low and soft spoken, but one could tell the fragile lady tried to sound tough. She was clearly smart enough to know that people in this area couldn't afford to be sensitive, but some couldn't really help it if they were born that way.

"Hi...I'm Investigator Holland and...could I come in for a minute?"

The woman's eyes slightly widened. "Don't tell me he got in trouble?" She stepped back and to the side to clear a path for Natalya to walk in and then she closed the door. "His mother is at work, though she should be home soon."

Natalya took a deep breath and briefly closed her eyes as she sat down, wondering if it would be better, and if she could get away with, easing into questioning first. She took a seat on the couch and looked at the woman who sat in a near by chair. "Could I have your name?"

"Yes, my name is Argenta...I am his grandmother, on his mom's side." She shook her head. "What is going on?"

"I just need to ask you a few questions for now, is it okay if we stay in the moment?" Natalya asked.

"Fine, but hurry it up so I can understand why you are here." The lady said, rushed, rather irritable, but she didn't understand what any of this was about.

"Mom..." Camilla walked around the corner as she came inside. "What's going on?" She looked into the living room.

"I don't know! She won't tell me! She is some new investigator and shes asking questions!" Argenta started to rant.

"Mom...please." Camilla stopped her and walked closer to the scene and took a seat, dropping her purse at her feet, still in her waffle house uniform. "What is going on?"

"I'm sorry about this, my name is Natalya Holland, I am a new Investigator employed at the police department. I just had a few questions for now...and I was hoping to ask these questions without issue, make the process easier."

"Is he in trouble?" Camilla asked.

"Like I said, I wanted to ask questions now, explain later, if you will both trust me...it will all go better this way." She looked between the two women.

"Okay..." Camilla took a deep breath. "Ask your questions."

"Okay, I guess without being so direct, what was your son's social life like?" Natalya didn't want to ask about enemies, trying her best not to hint at what happened, she didn't want to upset the two beyond capable of talking.

"He didn't have much of one, which is strange, he's a nice kid, very helpful, would do anything for anyone." Camilla shrugged. "He had friends in New York, but then he was so young and I guess adults influenced a lot more. Uh...he did make friends with Emry, though." She smiled. "Emry was really nice, I think it was natural that they gravitated towards each other."

Natalya slowly nodded, having glanced over Mia's file. "Because of his conditions."

"Right, he wanted to be helpful, though it wasn't too long ago that they drifted apart, right before that he was briefly friends with Justin, but he ended up hanging out with the kids in the other apartments, lately he's come back around." Camilla explained.

She looked up at Camilla and tapped her pen against her notebook. "So, do you know the circumstances around these happenings? Or have you noticed anything?"

Camilla shrugged. "Just that...Dolph and Justin seemed to become a..."

"I heard them having sex." Argenta suddenly interrupted.

"Mom..." Camilla looked at her with an offensive look. Her gaze then drifted to Natalya. "Well, it's not like the risk of children is there, and I trust my son, he's smart, he's not going to do anything stupid." She shook her head. "But yes, it seems that they got together, though I know that Dolph liked Emry a lot before he drifted away."

Natalya grinned for only a second. "I'm not here to make any judgments, I need to understand a few things." She shook her head. "So, basically his life is Justin and Emry? Or rather...only Justin?"

Camilla paused and then she slowly shook her head. "He did go to Emry's house...but it was to work on a project with his older sister. Thing is...he never came home that night."

Natalya jotted things down and then she looked up. "And you suspect it was something with Emry?"

Dolph's mother nodded. "I do...because I just don't see him working on a project all night, and it's not just knowing that, the sister came into the waffle house and she got something to eat. She was really jumpy, in a rush. I served her, of course she has never met me. She practically choked down her food, drowned a cup of coffee and left."

"Your metaphors." Argenta looked at her daughter. "Choking and drowning, do you know how mental that sounds?"

Camilla looked at her mother. "Well, how else am I supposed to describe it? Okay, she ate her food like Vin Diesel driving his fast car on the movie, and she drank her coffee as if she were trick or treating for it. Is that better?"

"No." Argenta looked back at Natalya.

Natalya was getting quite a bit of amusement out of the mother and daughter as she jotted down the details, though it still loomed in her mind of the news she had to deliver, something that would take all the comedy right out of the house and she honestly didn't know if she could handle it.

Part of her wanted to get up and go on to her next lead, send Trace to do the dirty work, but Argenta had wanted answers from the very beginning, she wasn't getting away from this. She didn't like this part of the job, she didn't sign up for it, she wanted the mystery, the logic, putting the pieces together, solving the crime.

She didn't want the messy emotions, it's why she desperately wanted a partner, she was tempted to demand one.

"Okay...I am going to level with you." Natalya closed her note book and brought it down to her lap along with her pen and she looked between an anxious Camilla and Argenta. "I am so sorry...but I have to inform you that your son was found dead this morning."

Camilla's eyes widened. "What?" Her breathing began to pick up. "Where?! How?!" She screamed, wanting answers.

Natalya looked down. "A single gunshot to the head, he was left in a field."

Dolph's mother slid from the chair and fell to her knees as she screaming in agony, tears spilling from her eyes and she fell over, rolling onto her side. She couldn't handle it, first her husband died and now her only son, and not just dead, but he was murdered.

Argenta seemed more well put together, more stunned than anything as she sat there and took this in, she wondered if part of her knew this all along, from the moment Natalya showed up. She brought her shaking hands to her lap and clasped them tightly together.

"I am so sorry." Natalya frowned and she stood up. "Is there anyone I can call?" She looked over at Argenta because Camilla was way too upset to even try to communicate with.

"Maybe it was the same person that killed Mia..." Argenta looked up, feeling angry as she listened to her daughter. "Get out of here...do your job! Find out who did this!" The old woman yelled her orders as loud as she could.

Natalya nodded. "I plan to Ma'am...and while I do, I am going to send EMS here...your daughter is very upset...she needs assistance." She didn't want to come out and say that she was going to have the woman sedated. She grabbed her phone and went to make the call as she hurried for the door, ready to chase down her next lead. Her only question, she had two of them, which one? Emry or Justin?

Who knew where Justin was, as for Emry, he was walking into his house with Sailor walking in behind him, strangely feeling protective as ever. Emry stumbled forward and grabbed the corner on the opposite side of the hall from the door. His eyes closed and he pressed his forehead against the corner.

"Are you still tired?" Sailor asked, a hand coming to his shoulder, the noise from the back bedroom not even really registering with him, he had no idea what was and wasn't normal in Emry's home.

"Yeah...just a little exhausted." That was when the stereo switched to the next song and music began to suddenly blare from the speakers, all before he could even recognize the noise from the bedroom. "What the hell?"

Sailor could still hear Emry and he tapped him on the shoulder and then pointed with his index and middle finger towards the hall off from the kitchen.

Emry looked at him and then he quickly headed through the kitchen and headed towards the back bedroom, Sailor went after him just in case he had another incident. Emry opened the door and his eyes widened.

There his father was, with Brett, the school counselor, his dad had the man on the bed and was fucking him, having a firm grip on Brett's hips as he pumped him. However at the sound of the door knob hitting the wall behind the door, both men froze as they looked up.

Emry grabbed the remote and shoved it at Sailor. "Go!"

Sailor stumbled back and headed into the kitchen, he aimed it at the stereo and hit the 'Off' button and the music cut out.

"Oh my god..." Emry then reacted.

"Em...I can explain." Cedric pulled away and he grabbed the sheets and pulled them around himself as Brett stumbled and rolled off on the other side of the bed, collecting his boxers.

"Not that I care that you're cheating on mom, because shes a two cent bitch, but...wha..." Emry shook his head.

Cedric grinned briefly. "The parent coming out to the child." He shook his head. "Okay, I'm the adult, so I get to just say it...I'm bisexual...and I never told you because it was never a big deal, I was with your mother."

"Being gay...I can be cool with that." Emry's teeth lightly clenched together. "But my school counselor?" He looked over at Brett. "The guy I go to and talk about how sad I am because I'm the plague and everyone treats me bad and..." Emry started to cry again. "I've told him all of my misery."

Sailor walked back towards the room, might be a little nosy, but he wanted to see this play out.

Cedric held his hands up. "Shouldn't that be a good thing? You can trust him and talk to him." He sighed. "Look...it's just while your mom is in rehab, she said I could take the time to explore my other side, and I've known Brett for a while, even before you started that school. In fact...it's part of why I sent you there, I knew he would be a good counselor for you."

"Knew him before? Where did you meet him?" Emry's eyes squinted.

"At my...fidelity group." Cedric revealed.

Emry started to laugh. "A fidelity group? There are fidelity groups?"

"Easy..." Sailor put a hand on Emry's shoulder.

"He was married at the time, still is...and we both attended because, well...Brett is gay and I am Bisexual and it's for staying loyal in our marriages despite our feelings of wanting to escape."

"Of course...I'm separated now...divorce is happening, she...found dirty magazines." Brett said.

"Dirty magazines? Are you stuck in the fifties?! Look at porn, erase your history!" Emry laughed.

"Emry, stop...you are going to have an attack." Cedric said in a firm tone.

Emry sighed and he took a deep breath and grabbed the door frame. "You know...odd thing about this...I'd rather have two fathers than a bitch of a mother, too bad it's over when the queen returns." He turned around and brushed past Sailor.

"Emry..." Cedric called out when Emry walked off and then Sailor went off after him. He sighed and closed the door. "Not exactly how I pictured it. I actually didn't want him to find out at all."

"Because you thought he would hate it." Brett walked around the bed. "And in fact...he would rather have two fathers." He looked down. "I'm not suggesting anything, Cedric...but the sound of that coming from a kid as sweet as Emry, kind of makes it hard not to..."

"I know." Cedric looked up. "It's hard to ever tell Emry no. It's hard to ever deny him anything, it always has been...and just having an idea of what he might consider a perfect family..."

"Makes you want to give him that too." Brett nodded in understanding. "Well, you know I like you, and I've been taking care of Emry...maybe not as a parent, but I see him and I talk to him and I try to help him in every way that I can. You're the one that's married and still with your wife, it's your shot to call."

"Four more years, just barely four more years...and I would love to give him a home and a family that is filled with warmth and love. No Thanksgivings where we heat up microwave meals and go off to eat alone, or Christmas where we simply give them cash and tell them to go buy whatever it will."

"Maybe for once, a real birthday cake and not some stupid cupcake and a single candle that Jessica insisted on to take the cheap way out. It was cute until he was about five, then he deserved real birthdays." He shook his head. "And my daughter is right, I choose favorites, I've done it from the minute Emry was born, Jessica didn't care and she had to really mature all by herself."

"Cedric...all I can say is that you go with what you feel and sometimes we can't help that. Lana is...shes practically grown now, but you have four more years left to make up with Emry, and I'm not saying this out of what I might want, in fact I'm not going to tell you what I want because I don't want that to affect your decision."

"You need to find it on your own, and if you want to ask me, you can take that chance, but this is about giving him a good family." Brett moved off to gather the rest of his clothes.

"No...I'm going to tell him." Emry stopped and he turned around and stormed out of his room and across the house.

"What?" Sailor followed after him as Emry headed through the kitchen and down the short distance of the second hall and he opened the door. "Dad."

Cedric was fastening his jeans as Brett threw on his shirt and he looked over at Emry.

"You need to just dump mom." Emry walked further into the room and around the bed. "Asia made sixty thousand dollars and she wants us to go in with her and her dad and buy a house together, she would make a better sister than Lana ever has!"

Cedric's eyes widened. "How could you say that about Lana?"

"Because shes the reason I got raped." Emry shook his head. "It doesn't matter now, you haven't heard what happened, but secrecy really isn't an issue anymore. She took my medication and she drugged Dolph with it so he would sleep with her. I found all my GHB capsules tore and empty, my bottles empty, a bottle of champagne in the living room. I still have the bottle, if they test the residue they will find it."

Brett walked over and he looked at Emry.

"Yeah, and I saw Dolph having sex with Lana, then she snuck out and left and he was passed out and so I slipped into the bed to make him think we had sex so he didn't have to know what a horrible thing Lana did to him."

Sailor's eyes widened as he heard such a story.

Cedric's jaw tightened, he would never disbelieve anything Emry told him. "So...because you didn't have your medicine that day, because of what she did, that was why you had an attack and that man..." He closed his eyes. "If you had your medicine..."

"I might of not had an attack. I was walking normal, I was not emotional...I was just fine, it was just a happen chance, all most likely due to sudden medication withdrawal, if not just not having it at all." Emry said.

"Where's the bottle?" Cedric asked with closed eyes.

"It's under my dresser." Emry answered. "But shes getting away, she put on Facebook that shes moving to Georgia with a girl she met in rehab." Emry looked down. "And...it's not worth it, Dolph...isn't alive to testify to even being in her company to drink it."

"Dolph is dead?" Brett asked in concern.

"He was found this morning, murdered, left out in a field." He looked up. "Shot in the head, no one knows where his car is or who did it." He looked at his dad. "So, Lana is going away, dump mom, we deserve a better future. We can go in with Asia and..."

"Emry!" Cedric snapped in a firm tone. "I'm sorry...I need time to process all of this..." He took a deep breath. "So can all of these ideas that this Asia girl has put into your head, can they all go on hold for a few hours?"

"Yeah." Emry nodded, suddenly realizing he had to get the money he stole from Dani and find another hiding place, his dad would likely go through his room to find that champagne bottle. He turned around and grabbed Sailor by the hand and pulled him along.

Tyler walked back into Principal Morris' office and he wasn't in one of his smart ass moods, having held Chase, a wanted man, and then learning Dolph was killed not far from his house. He sat down and looked across at Trace.

"So, are you wondering why you're here?" He asked, looking up at Tyler.

"Kind of...I thought you caught the killer." He crossed his arms.

"Yeah, a little error..." Trace looked up. "As that stands, you know what that makes you, Tyler? It makes you the prime suspect. Liam and Kane didn't do it...in fact, Liam told me that someone at the party persuaded him and Kane to put the medications in bags and ditch the bottles."

Tyler nodded. "That's interesting, very classic...if you are going to frame someone, just drop their medicine bottles there."

"Yeah...it is." He clicked his pen several times. "The bottles are hardly relevant anymore and the evidence to solve this case is going to be that gun and the last place we can put it is with you. So, unless you can tell me what happened to it, and you can't, because if you do, then you are changing your story from what you originally said in that you lost it and don't know what happened to it."

Tyler's eyebrows lifted. "That's right...and I can't help that I lost it." He eased back. "You can suspect me but you can hardly arrest me. I'm sure another arrest that leads to a dead end would get you into a lot of trouble."

"Except that...someone puts you with Mia that night." Trace looked up and he slowly grinned.